SBE 3: Part I: The Book of Thang: The Canon of Yâo

p. 32 1. Examining into antiquity, (we find that) the Tî Yâo 1 was styled Fang-hsün 2. He was reverential, intelligent, accomplished, and thoughtful,--naturally and without effort. He was sincerely courteous, and capable of (all) complaisance. The bright (influence of these qualities) was felt through the four quarters (of the land), and reached to (heaven) above and (earth) beneath. He made the able and virtuous distinguished, and thence proceeded to the love of (all in) the nine classes of his kindred, who (thus) became harmonious. He (also) regulated and polished the people (of his domain), who all became brightly intelligent. (Finally), he united and harmonized the myriad states; and so the black-haired people were transformed. The result was (universal) concord. 2. He commanded the Hsîs and Hos 3, in reverent accordance with (their observation of) the wide heavens, to calculate and delineate (the movements and appearances of) the sun, the moon, the stars, and the zodiacal spaces, and so to deliver respectfully the seasons to be observed by the people. p. 33 He separately commanded the second brother Hsî to reside at Yü-î 1, in what was called the Bright Valley, and (there) respectfully to receive as a guest the rising sun, and to adjust and arrange the labours of the spring. 'The day,' (said he), 'is of the medium length, and the star is in Niâo;--you may thus exactly determine mid-spring. The people are dispersed (in the fields), and birds and beasts breed and copulate.'